The Day in the Gulf

COMMANDERS TO MEET: President Bush said Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf and other allied and Iraqi military commanders will meet at a site near the Iraq-Kuwait border to discuss the cease-fire and a prisoner exchange. The meeting, originally set for today, was delayed at least 24 hours at Iraq’s request. Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, meanwhile, said the air war would resume if Baghdad makes hostile gestures.

MINES KILL 2 AMERICANS: Two members of a U.S. medical team were killed by land mines while attempting to reach surrendering Iraqi soldiers. Meanwhile, despite the cease-fire, soldiers in an Iraqi army bus south of Basra fired on U.S. troops. The Americans returned the fire, destroying the bus and taking nine Iraqi prisoners.

IRAQ WANTS TROOPS OUT: Iraqi Foreign Minister Tarik Aziz demanded in a broadcast on Baghdad Radio that all allied troops leave Iraqi territory immediately. The broadcast also informed Iraqis for the first time since the cease-fire took hold that coalition forces remain inside the country.

CALL FOR ARAB UNITY: Jordan’s King Hussein, in a nationwide address, urged postwar Arab unity and called for movement on the Palestinian question in postwar diplomacy. The radio and television broadcast by the king, who during the war made pro-Iraqi statements but remained officially neutral, was subdued and conciliatory.

RELIEF EFFORTS URGED: After a five-day survey around Baghdad, officials of UNICEF and the World Health Organization warned that millions of lives are at stake unless water and food supplies and medical services are restored soon. U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar said he will send U.N. Undersecretary General Martti Ahtisaari to the Persian Gulf to see what role the United Nations can play in supplying humanitarian aid.